Rendezvous with Rama 
asked by speaker on November 7, 2006 10:17 PM
An all-time science fiction classic, Rendezvous with Rama is also one of Clarke's best novels--it won the Campbell, Hugo, Jupiter, and Nebula Awards. A huge, mysterious, cylindrical object appears in space, swooping in toward the sun. The citizens of the solar system send a ship to investigate before the enigmatic craft, called Rama, disappears. The astronauts given the task of exploring the hollow cylindrical ship are able to decipher some, but definitely not all, of the extraterrestrial vehicle's puzzles. From the ubiquitous trilateral symmetry of its structures to its cylindrical sea and machine-island, Rama's secrets are strange evidence of an advanced civilization. But who, and where, are the Ramans, and what do they want with humans? Perhaps the answer lies with the busily working biots, or the sealed-off buildings, or the inaccessible "southern" half of the enormous cylinder. Rama's unsolved mysteries are tantalizing indeed. Rendezvous with Rama is fast moving, fascinating, and a must-read for science fiction fans. Clarke collaborated with Gentry Lee in writing several Rama sequels, beginning with Rama II.
Reviews
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I just reread my old copy of this novel. It's still a great read. Concise, well written, good pacing, likable characters. Even though I know what's going to happen, the surprises are still interesting.
It's also the best of the series. The sequel is OK, but the third book, "Garden of Rama" is so bad, I only read half of it when I tried to reread it.
It's also the best of the series. The sequel is OK, but the third book, "Garden of Rama" is so bad, I only read half of it when I tried to reread it.
reviewed by faithfulone on November 19, 2006 1:26 AM
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Astronomers detect a large object entering the Solar system from deep space. At first it is thought to be just another large rock, but scientists soon discover that it is actually a colossal space ship called Rama. A team of scientists blast off from Earth to investigate in a ship called the Endeavor. What follows is a story of exploration, and one of the best conceived hard sci-fi tales ever written. Who built Rama? What is it's purpose? Why did it come to our solar system? The story follows the progress of the astronauts/scientists in the not too distant future as they methodically explore the unknown space ship. Each new discovery brings new surprises as well. This is also a political tale as well as factions on the ship and on Earth have very different ideas about what Rama is, what is represents, and what should be done.
This book is, in my opinion, one of the most intelligent and well thought-out hard sci-fi novels ever written. First published in 1973, it remains as fresh as if it were written today. There are several things that I really like about this novel. First, the exploration of Rama by the crew of the Endeavor proceeds in an organized and intelligent manner by men and women who are not superhuman. Discoveries are assimilated, risks are weighed, and the plan evolves. One common problem with this sub-genre of sci-fi (particularly when transfered to TV) is that individuals of superhuman stature (e.g. the main character has a Ph.D. in astrophysics, was in the Special Forces, a fighter pilot, and in their spare time a classically trained French chef, a lyric poet, and fluent in ten languages) go off on their own to make brilliant discoveries while narrowly avoiding death. This may add drama to the plot, but this cheapens the story and moves the entire story from believable to fantastic. The characters, while perhaps representing some of the best and brightest of humanity, are not absurdly talented beyond reason. Second, Rama itself is fascinating. Clarke constructed a rich world for his intrepid adventures to explore. Finally, there is a sense of wonder or awe associated with the exploration of Rama that many have tried to duplicate, but none have even come remotely close to succeeding. This book has `atmosphere'. Early in the novel Clarke analogizes the exploration of Rama with the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb. There is something wonderful and mysterious about Rama that goes far beyond current human understanding, but understandable by humans nonetheless by scientific analysis and reflection. It is this last aspect that really makes this novel better than 2001. In the latter novel, the aliens are so advanced that they are utterly incomprehensible. In Rama, the alien technology can be understood by homo sapiens.
If I had any complaint at all, the novel is a bit short by modern standards. It really seems light at about 240 pages, and it would have been nice if Clarke had further developed several of the story lines. In any case, this is a book that can be read over and over again. There are VERY few books that I read a second time, but this has been one of them. In the end, there are more questions than answers, and many of the questions are not resolved. I have not read any of the sequels because I heard they are really bad and I don't want to spoil this novel. This is one of the novels that put Clarke into the great three of sci-fi (with Heinlein and Asimov), and it won both the Hugo and the Nebula award. This novel really defines and/or sets the standard for the sci-fi sub-genre of exploration/interstellar archaeology.
This book is, in my opinion, one of the most intelligent and well thought-out hard sci-fi novels ever written. First published in 1973, it remains as fresh as if it were written today. There are several things that I really like about this novel. First, the exploration of Rama by the crew of the Endeavor proceeds in an organized and intelligent manner by men and women who are not superhuman. Discoveries are assimilated, risks are weighed, and the plan evolves. One common problem with this sub-genre of sci-fi (particularly when transfered to TV) is that individuals of superhuman stature (e.g. the main character has a Ph.D. in astrophysics, was in the Special Forces, a fighter pilot, and in their spare time a classically trained French chef, a lyric poet, and fluent in ten languages) go off on their own to make brilliant discoveries while narrowly avoiding death. This may add drama to the plot, but this cheapens the story and moves the entire story from believable to fantastic. The characters, while perhaps representing some of the best and brightest of humanity, are not absurdly talented beyond reason. Second, Rama itself is fascinating. Clarke constructed a rich world for his intrepid adventures to explore. Finally, there is a sense of wonder or awe associated with the exploration of Rama that many have tried to duplicate, but none have even come remotely close to succeeding. This book has `atmosphere'. Early in the novel Clarke analogizes the exploration of Rama with the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb. There is something wonderful and mysterious about Rama that goes far beyond current human understanding, but understandable by humans nonetheless by scientific analysis and reflection. It is this last aspect that really makes this novel better than 2001. In the latter novel, the aliens are so advanced that they are utterly incomprehensible. In Rama, the alien technology can be understood by homo sapiens.
If I had any complaint at all, the novel is a bit short by modern standards. It really seems light at about 240 pages, and it would have been nice if Clarke had further developed several of the story lines. In any case, this is a book that can be read over and over again. There are VERY few books that I read a second time, but this has been one of them. In the end, there are more questions than answers, and many of the questions are not resolved. I have not read any of the sequels because I heard they are really bad and I don't want to spoil this novel. This is one of the novels that put Clarke into the great three of sci-fi (with Heinlein and Asimov), and it won both the Hugo and the Nebula award. This novel really defines and/or sets the standard for the sci-fi sub-genre of exploration/interstellar archaeology.
reviewed by redryder on November 21, 2006 8:00 AM
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An unidentified space vessel ("Rama") enters the solar system. The human species has no other option than to try and figure out what it means. That is the basic datum around which Arthur C. Clarke's celebrated novel has been constructed. Clarke opens four windows on this process of sense making: an aesthetic, a scientific, a political and a religious.
The aesthetic dimension of the encounter with Rama is, for me, the most compelling. Rama exhibits a minimalistic but refined architecture based on a threefold symmetry. It is truly a thing of beauty and a pleasure to behold for one's mind's eye. On top of that comes the awe-inspiring vastness of this contraption and the author is very skillful in evoking the frisson that goes with the feeling of desorientation when navigating through this enormous space (a very good example of what in Kantian aesthetics would be called an experience of the negative sublime).
Rama presents us also with a scientific puzzle. As the story progresses, we understand that it is a kind of ark, or repository of an alien culture's artefacts and life forms. It does this by relying on a clever combination of thermodynamical and biological principles - the elegance of which reinforces the beauty of the ship's architecture. However, as there is much which remains unfathomable to its human explorers, the story strikes a good balance between the anthropically accessible and the fundamentally mysterious. At the end of the book, just before the human visitors leave Rama, their desire to know overcomes their infatuation with the ship's tantalising beauty and they puncture its smooth inner skin to inspect some of the cargo. The ship doesn't seem to mind but to the reader the moment has a weight similar to Eve eating the apple in the Garden of Eden.
The cleverness and elegance of the scientific and aesthetic perspectives contrast heavily with the one-dimensionality of the political and religious outlook on Rama. For the religiously minded, the arrival of the space ship constitutes an act of grace. It has come to rescue mankind from its fallen state. For politicians, Rama constitutes a threat to the power equilibrium in the solar system. Hence, it needs to be destroyed. Clearly, this constitutes a dilemma which is, however, neatly resolved by Rama leaving the solar system for some unknown destination. One wonders how deep the wedge would have entered into human civilisation if the dilemma would have persisted for a longer while.
What is missing from Clarke's narrative is a deeply philosophical perspective. The questions and tensions remain at the level of the self-centerdly functional and never transcend the "us" versus "it" perspective as exemplified by questions such as: what does Rama mean? How might we make use of it? What could it do to us? Nowhere this leads us to question the deeper purpose of mankind, to re-appreciate our position in a universe which brings forth incomprehensible felicities (and threats) and sustains life in a most surprising way. Clarke could have asked those questions without letting the story slide into new agey utopianism (Crichton did it in a most refreshing way, in his "Sphere", very comparable in setting and atmosphere). Without this deeper perspective, the rendezvous with Rama is a compelling but ultimately a rather trivial anecdote in the history of mankind.
The aesthetic dimension of the encounter with Rama is, for me, the most compelling. Rama exhibits a minimalistic but refined architecture based on a threefold symmetry. It is truly a thing of beauty and a pleasure to behold for one's mind's eye. On top of that comes the awe-inspiring vastness of this contraption and the author is very skillful in evoking the frisson that goes with the feeling of desorientation when navigating through this enormous space (a very good example of what in Kantian aesthetics would be called an experience of the negative sublime).
Rama presents us also with a scientific puzzle. As the story progresses, we understand that it is a kind of ark, or repository of an alien culture's artefacts and life forms. It does this by relying on a clever combination of thermodynamical and biological principles - the elegance of which reinforces the beauty of the ship's architecture. However, as there is much which remains unfathomable to its human explorers, the story strikes a good balance between the anthropically accessible and the fundamentally mysterious. At the end of the book, just before the human visitors leave Rama, their desire to know overcomes their infatuation with the ship's tantalising beauty and they puncture its smooth inner skin to inspect some of the cargo. The ship doesn't seem to mind but to the reader the moment has a weight similar to Eve eating the apple in the Garden of Eden.
The cleverness and elegance of the scientific and aesthetic perspectives contrast heavily with the one-dimensionality of the political and religious outlook on Rama. For the religiously minded, the arrival of the space ship constitutes an act of grace. It has come to rescue mankind from its fallen state. For politicians, Rama constitutes a threat to the power equilibrium in the solar system. Hence, it needs to be destroyed. Clearly, this constitutes a dilemma which is, however, neatly resolved by Rama leaving the solar system for some unknown destination. One wonders how deep the wedge would have entered into human civilisation if the dilemma would have persisted for a longer while.
What is missing from Clarke's narrative is a deeply philosophical perspective. The questions and tensions remain at the level of the self-centerdly functional and never transcend the "us" versus "it" perspective as exemplified by questions such as: what does Rama mean? How might we make use of it? What could it do to us? Nowhere this leads us to question the deeper purpose of mankind, to re-appreciate our position in a universe which brings forth incomprehensible felicities (and threats) and sustains life in a most surprising way. Clarke could have asked those questions without letting the story slide into new agey utopianism (Crichton did it in a most refreshing way, in his "Sphere", very comparable in setting and atmosphere). Without this deeper perspective, the rendezvous with Rama is a compelling but ultimately a rather trivial anecdote in the history of mankind.
reviewed by waltersmith on November 27, 2006 10:57 PM